EDITH Cowan University’s 25th anniversary celebrations have coincided with a focus on the growth of Joondalup.
Four years of research by ECU Joondalup foundation staff members John Renner and Sybe Jongeling resulted in publication of The Joondalup Story: A City and a University Campus in the Making.
Renner and Jongeling trace the vision for Joondalup and its accompanying university to urban planner Gordon Stephenson in the early 1950s.
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Professor Stephenson’s vision was to create WA’s largest shopping centre and a unique learning precinct, with a new university, Tafe college and police academy all located within walking distance from the train station and Joondalup CBD.
They also trace the ongoing development of the Joondalup university from its planning stages and temporary campus in the then-shire council offices in Boas Avenue.
“Professor Renner was Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering and he was responsible for the overall building program at the Joondalup campus,” Associate Professor Jongeling said.
“I was director of Research and Development as well as the very first lecturer to teach a group of 26 graduate teachers that first Monday evening in Semester 2, 1984 on the ground floor of the shire offices, the very beginning of ECU Joondalup.”